Christian Horner reveals what Red Bull chief told him in phone call

Some 15 months on from Christian Horner's high-profile F1 sacking by Red Bull, it appears bridges in some areas are being rebuilt.

The 52-year-old Horner was shown the door in July 2025 and later paid almost £67million in compensation by the team he ran so successfully for 20 years.

He has described the nature of the sacking as 'brutal' and 'painful' as more details about what went down begin to trickle out. We expect much more revelations in the coming days with Horner's new memoir 'Drive' set for an October 22 release.

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Horner opens up on Mintzlaff relationship

It appears though that relationships are beginning to be mended, with Horner providing the perfect example during an interview this week with the UK's Guardian newspaper.

Horner said he received a call from Red Bull Managing Director Oliver Mintzlaff in the aftermath of the team's victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia on October 4.

It was the first victory of the Red Bull Powertrains era, a massive project which Horner himself masterminded to give the team future control over its own power unit destiny.

Recounting the post-Malaysia phone call, Horner revealed: “It felt particularly brutal and sad to finish in that manner.

"But I now have a reasonable relationship with Oliver Mintzlaff. He rang the other day and thanked me for all I’d done for the engine.”

Horner disappointed with Marko - 'no indication this was coming'

While the relationship with Mintzlaff is good, Horner clearly remains disappointed about the way his former colleague Helmut Marko handled the sacking.

“Helmut could be blunt and I was disappointed he’d stayed as a guest of our family two days before with no indication this was coming."

So who ultimately was responsible for the decision to fire Horner? The man himself is clear that it was not the Verstappens (superstar driver Max and father Jos).

So whose decision was it to sack Horner?

“No, it was a Red Bull decision. After Dietrich [Mateschitz, company co-founder] died, things changed in the leadership.”

While Horner clearly misses the challenge of running an F1 team, he says not being able to properly celebrate that Powertrains success hurts him even more.

He said: “Nobody could take away the 124 wins and 14 championships. But I felt particularly hurt and robbed I didn’t have the opportunity to see that Powertrains engine win.”

“I felt very proud seeing what it meant to everybody and that they sent the Powertrains representative on to the podium," he admitted.

"I had messages throughout the team and I texted Max after the race. He was very magnanimous and it was a landmark moment to see that engine win.

"It reinforced to me that, if you assemble the right people with the right culture and the necessary tools, anything is possible.”

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